Students Rescue Drowning Man, 28

Retarded Man Rescued From Lake By College Students From Suffield

January 03, 1992|By ROBIN STANSBURY; Courant Staff Writer

SUFFIELD — First they saw him fall into the icy water of the Congamond Lakes. Then they heard his terrified screams.

But John "Jack" Mannix and William "Bill" Glynn, both of Suffield, did not let their fears stop them from going to the aid of Dennis E. Roy, a 28-year-old mentally retarded man who had fallen off his bike into the partly frozen lake Thursday afternoon.

The two men ran from Mannix's parents' house and grabbed an aluminum ladder on their way to the thawing ice.

As they extended the ladder to the drowning man -- who they said was splashing in 30 feet of water and grabbing for a chunk of ice -- they said they heard the ice around them begin to crack.

Immediately Mannix and Glynn lay down flat to distribute their weight.

They passed the ladder to Roy, who eventually used it to climb out of the lake.

Roy was taken to Noble Hospital in Westfield, Mass., where he was treated and released.

"We saw the whole thing happen right before our eyes, and I was a little confused, but not afraid," said Glynn, 18, a freshman at Florida Southern College. "I was thinking of saving him, but I wasn't sure how to do it."

The two college students were playing table tennis in the Mannix home about 1:30 p.m. when they saw Roy riding his bike near the center of the lake.

"I looked through the window, and I had a feeling he was going to fall," said Mannix, 19, a sophomore at the University of Connecticut. "We saw him fall over his bike, but then we went outside and heard him scream.

"People from the Southwick [Mass.] side of the lake couldn't have gotten to him in time, so if anybody was going to go out there we knew it would have to be us."

At first, Mannix said he thought of getting a boat to push into the water but then saw the ladder only a few feet away.

"We grabbed the ladder and ran onto the ice, and we saw him [Roy] splashing around, screaming, and up to his neck in water,"

Mannix said. "His bike was halfway in the water and we couldn't understand what he was saying, but he was frantic and panicked."

Both men -- best friends for more than 15 years -- grew up on the shores of the Congamond Lakes and said they were not concerned for their own safety as they ran onto the ice.

"We weren't too worried about ourselves, but the ice was cracking right around us," Glynn said.

Mannix said, "We could have gone right through the ice ourselves, but we weren't thinking about that."

The first time the men extended the ladder to Roy, it broke apart, leaving both sides helpless.

Mannix said he yelled to Roy to let go of the useless portion of the ladder and together both men calmed Roy.

By then, both said, Roy had been in the water for more than three minutes.

Mannix pulled the ladder back together and once again extended it to Roy, who was holding onto the icy ledge to avoid sinking.

"I extended the ladder to him [Roy] again, but I started to slide across the ice and into the water," Mannix said.

Immediately, Glynn grabbed Mannix's feet. Grabbing the ladder a second time, Roy pulled himself out of the freezing water.

"We could see that he was cold and we wanted to get him to a safe part of the ice, but he just kept asking for his bike over and over. He didn't want to leave the bike behind," Glynn said. They left the bike in the lake.

The men helped Roy walk back to Mannix's house, where they put him into a tub of warm water.

They said Roy was mumbling but was not shivering. The men then called police.

"I am absolutely certain that man would have drowned without these two," said Suffield police Capt. Robert A. Williams. "He would have stayed with his bike and gone right to the bottom. It was quick thinking, from grabbing the ladder to putting him in the warm water."

Williams said he would ask that both men be commended for their heroic deed. Neither Roy nor his family was available for comment.

Mannix and Glynn said they do not consider themselves heroes for saving Roy's life.